


swing around your sledgehammer

by ikuzonos



Series: DR: TTNH Side Stories [10]
Category: DR: TTNH, Original Work
Genre: Gen, Past Child Abuse, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26669980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ikuzonos/pseuds/ikuzonos
Summary: There is a burden on Asuka's shoulders.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: DR: TTNH Side Stories [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1700629
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	swing around your sledgehammer

**Author's Note:**

> Technically all this spoils is part of Asuka's backstory, but it definitely hits harder if you've finished TTNH. Anyways stan Goro Ishikawa for clear skin.

Though he held it in front of his face to keep up appearances, Goro Ishikawa was in fact paying absolutely zero attention to the newspaper. He’d realized two pages in that they’d received an old edition, but wasn’t going to bother disputing it with the underpaid adolescent who delivered it.

Really, the only reason he bothered with holding up the hastily slapped together sheets of cheap paper was so that Asuka wouldn’t think he was watching her. As a reasonable parent and human being, Goro was respectful of his daughter’s privacy, but he was starting to get concerned about her eating habits. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her eat a full meal, and even now, she was picking through her rice without eating any.

Goro liked to think he knew Asuka very well. Obviously, he wasn’t perfect, but in his mind, they were as tightly knit as parent and child could be. Every now and again, they’d have their differences, but he’d never even raised his voice at her. She could tell him anything, and he’d be willing to listen and help her out, but directly saying that would only make her anxious. 

Quietly, he turned a page of the newspaper he wasn’t reading. Asuka continued to poke at her rice with her chopsticks. Goro held back the questions building up in his mouth, bitter bile slick in his throat. Something seemed to be on her mind, but pressuring her before she was ready would only shut her down.

Goro wondered if she could feel the concern radiating off of him. He turned another page, clenching the newspaper tight in order to distract himself. Perhaps he was driving himself crazy over nothing, but he’d spent the last fifteen and a half years worrying about Asuka in some capacity. Might as well stay the course.

“She used to hit me.”

The newspaper slipped right out of his fingers. Goro looked right at Asuka, his eyes wide. Had he heard that right? She was staring down at her lap, her shoulders hunched. He reached for his voice, realizing she had to be waiting on a reply, but all he managed to say was: “What?”

Asuka didn’t look up from her lap. She was shaking. “Mom. When she was still around. She’d hit me.”

Goro felt his heart thump in his chest. There was probably a logical, comforting thing he could say. Something to assure her that it was safe to tell him this. He reached across the table to rest a hand on her shoulder, too caught up in his thoughts.

Thankfully, Asuka took that as a cue to keep going. “Do you remember how I was always coming home from school all bruised?”

His breath caught in his throat as the missing pieces clicked into place. Goro said, “Of course I remember. She always told me that you were getting into fights in the schoolyard. I had half a mind to go down there and have a talk with those brats.”

Asuka didn’t laugh. She was still shaking. “She made that up. It… it was her. It was _always_ her.”

“Holy shit,” Goro murmured. He tried to muster up something sharper, something more conclusive, but his body was almost paralyzed with horror. How had he never realized? “I’m so, so sorry, Asuka.”

She shrugged. She sounded exhausted. “It’s not your fault. You were always at work. And she was so convincing. She even had me thinking that I was wrong.”

Goro clenched his fist. It wasn’t something he liked to admit to himself, but despite living with her for nearly eight years, he didn’t know Asuka’s mother at all. He remembered what she’d told him; she had no living family and no support outside of him. As far as he’d been aware, she didn’t have a single friend from before the two of them met.

But of course, she abandoned Asuka in a shopping mall and vanished into the night. And now, he was learning the depth of her impact. Goro might not have known her real name.

“I still should have noticed,” he insisted firmly. “That day you were sick should have been a dead giveaway that something was wrong.”

Asuka looked up, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Goro said, “You were about six or seven when it happened. You said you felt like someone put your head in the oven and your stomach hurt, and didn’t want to go to school. I said that your mother could probably take the day off to watch you, and you sat up immediately and said you were fine and could go.”

Asuka frowned. She tapped her fingers on the kitchen table a couple of times, before finally saying, “I… don’t remember that.”

Goro shrugged. “That’s not your fault. But I’m so sorry for failing you. I swear I won’t let anyone lay a finger on you ever again.”

“Well, that’s unrealistic,” Asuka replied, “Besides, I’m not pissed at you. I’m just glad that you _believe_ me, ‘cus she always used to say that if I told you, she’d make us both pay.”

Goro huffed. “I could’ve taken her. I’ll knock her lights out if I ever see her again. Watch me.”

To his surprise, Asuka laughed at that, but it was brief and tainted with rust. She rubbed her forehead, drooping again. “I can’t fucking believe I actually told you. I thought… I thought I’d just have to live with that forever.”

“I’m glad you told me,” Goro responded, “I swear, I’ll do whatever I can to help you with it.” There were surely lasting effects on her. Though he himself would never even _think_ about raising a hand to his daughter, he knew that the memories had to weigh on her every single day.

Forget a punch. If he ever saw Asuka’s mother again, he would kill her on the spot. Goro grit his teeth, wondering if there could _possibly_ be enough room in their budget to get Asuka therapy. Even without this on her shoulders, he was sure she could use it.

“Thank you,” Asuka whispered. She got up from her seat, circled around the table, and threw her arms around him. Goro rested his head on her shoulder and held her tight. She was still shaking a little bit, but her tremors had been worse before.

Perhaps ‘I’ll never let _anyone_ lay a finger on you’ was far too ambitious of a promise for him to come through with, but in that moment, Goro swore he would never let Asuka’s mother hurt her ever again.


End file.
